Food Vendor Says She Was Never Paid After Working Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields

Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival was one of the biggest feel-good stories of the summer. The one-day event at Great Park in Irvine, California raised $20 million for women’s nonprofits, with Stevie Nicks and Alanis Morissette on the lineup and Melinda French Gates matching the festival’s $10 million total. Now the afterglow comes with a complication.

Mary Chacon, owner of Ugly Oats Kitchen, posted an open letter to Olivia Rodrigo on Instagram claiming she was never paid for her sales at the festival. According to Chacon, vendors paid about $1,400 in fees and forfeited 35 percent of sales, and she shut down her bakery to make thousands of cookies for the event. She also says setup information arrived only hours before vendors needed to be on site, and she described it as the most miserable day her staff has experienced at Ugly Oats.

Worth noting: Chacon says she loves what Rodrigo stands for, so this reads less like a takedown and more like a plea for accountability, especially with a possible 2027 edition in the conversation. NME has reached out to Daisy Chain Fields and Rodrigo’s spokesperson for comment, and no response has been reported yet. So what do you think: should big charity festivals be held to a higher standard when it comes to paying small vendors?